Muscle growth for Woman

what happens to the muscles when you weight train if your not consuming significant protein or calories?? under 1200 daily. 

i am interested in the physiological effect weight training and food deprivation has on my muscles.

thanx for your imput,

I don't know that you'll gain any muscle at all if you restrict to under 1200.

ok, but does that mean if i am still weight training i will loose muscle?? what does the muscle eat?? physiologicaly what happens????

As I understand it, you can keep your muscle if you're eating at a calorie deficit and doing strength training. If you're just dieting and doing cardio, you WILL lose muscle. I know people love to see the numbers on the scale fall, but I'd take it falling slower if I'm keeping my muscle!

so its as i thought, im depleating muscle . i do cardio everyday weight training/circuit training every day.

so muscle doesnt eat fat?

this wouldnt increase the burn by feeding off the fat reserves im trying so hard to loose?

or does muscle only use protein.

 

thanx for your time

ps.

im not trying to build any more muscle.. so no soy supplements or protein shakes for me thanks.

 

I think you could get some answers to this on the Fitness board. There's some weight trainers there.

People seem to forget your heart is a muscle -- if you don't eat enough food to support your basic bodily functions you might not be aware of muscle loss until the heart quits working right.  You also need muscle to move food thru the digestive system.  Your brain is mostly fat - so you have to be sure to eat enough healthy fat to keep it functioning as well.  If you don't eat a well balanced diet and enough calories to keep you in good health your body is going to feed off the muscle to store the fat while you are in starvation mode. 

 Eating more protein may help preserve some of the muscle but your body also needs a good balance of carbs and fats.  If you have too much protein this causes kidney failure.

 

Very informative,

i heard 50 g of protien a day for woman, i avg about that..

 a good variety of food is very important, i absolutely agree and i see what your getting at. and i rather loose fat than muscle so...

  

thanx again.

At 1200 calories / day your body will most definitely start to breakdown muscle tissue for fuel especially if you are doing cardio on your workout days. You will lose weight but you will also lose lean muscle mass and that's bad because lean muscle mass is "metabolically active" -- it actually burns more calories just because it's muscle. The scenario you described sounds dangerous. I would advise no more than a 30% daily calorie deficit while weight-training.

You can also do a "zig-zag" routine with 3 days below maintenance and 1 day above, this will help you spare lean muscle tissue and lose the highest amount of fat while still keeping your lean muscle mass.

 

BTW, If you are trying something like this I find doing regular body fat % measurements (either with a scale or (preferably) skin calipers) will help you get a better idea of what % of pounds lost are coming from fat vs. muscle. 

You don't gain muscle. If you want to gain muscle, you have to eat an excess of calories from protein.

If you eat too little, you'll lose muscle no matter how much strength training you are doing.

Dee

Actually I have read that you can maintain muscle by strength training (actual weight lifting, not flinging around 5lb weights)

You CAN but not at under 1200 calories I imagine.

There's a study I have in mind, I'll find it and PM it to you ctefan.

At 1200 calories / day your body will most definitely start to breakdown muscle tissue for fuel especially if you are doing cardio on your workout days. You will lose weight but you will also lose lean muscle mass and that's bad because lean muscle mass is "metabolically active" -- it actually burns more calories just because it's muscle. The scenario you described sounds dangerous. I would advise no more than a 30% daily calorie deficit while weight-training.

You can also do a "zig-zag" routine with 3 days below maintenance and 1 day above, this will help you spare lean muscle tissue and lose the highest amount of fat while still keeping your lean muscle mass.

BTW, If you are trying something like this I find doing regular body fat % measurements (either with a scale or (preferably) skin calipers) will help you get a better idea of what % of pounds lost are coming from fat vs. muscle.



I second this post.  You are already flirting with starvation calorie levels and with added activity you are most likely forcing your body into protecting itself from you.  If this is the case then you will lose both muscle and fat.  I would not be surprised if you will lose mineral density in your bones as well as teeth.  1200 calories a day is the recomended baseline for a reason. 

You have also not said your height and weight.  If you are for example 5'8" or taller your body will need more calories per day than someone who is 5'1".  This is why at 6'4" I can eat 2500 calories and still lose weight.  I'm also a guy and work out 2-5 days a week at various levels but mainly cardio until I burn away the fat.  I'm not worried about the muscle loss.  This is not an issue for me since I consume on average 150g of protein a day.  80 g is from whey protein shakes but I also consume around 70-100 through my diet.